The race factor — again
By Max J. Castro
The comedian Miguel Alvarez Guedes tells a joke about a plane that is running out of gas and going down unless it can dump a certain amount of excess weight. A crew member announces that after all the hand luggage and other unnecessary items have been dropped, there is still too much weight. They must lose a passenger. As it turns out, all of the passengers are white –except one.
The black passenger notices all eyes turning to him. The crew member scolds the whites for their racism and assures the black passenger that the decision will be reached on the basis of a totally fair knowledge-based contest. Here it is.
“Question1: Name a Japanese city attacked with an atom bomb.” The crew member points to a white passenger. “Hiroshima,” the man answers. “Very good, you are spared.
By Max J. Castro Read Spanish Version
majcastro@gmail.com
The
comedian Miguel Alvarez Guedes tells a joke about a plane that is
running out of gas and going down unless it can dump a certain amount
of excess weight. A crew member announces that after all the hand
luggage and other unnecessary items have been dropped, there is still
too much weight. They must lose a passenger. As it turns out, all of
the passengers are white –except one.
The
black passenger notices all eyes turning to him. The crew member
scolds the whites for their racism and assures the black passenger
that the decision will be reached on the basis of a totally fair
knowledge-based contest. Here it is.
“Question
1: Name a Japanese city attacked with an atom bomb.” The crew
member points to a white passenger. “Hiroshima,” the man answers.
“Very good, you are spared. “Question 2: Name another Japanese
city attacked with an atom bomb.” He points to a white woman:
“Nagasaki,” she responds. “You also are saved.” Then, the
crew member points to the black passenger: “Tell me the names and
addresses of the Japanese who died in those attacks?”
Although
he would never give the least indication of it for reasons of
character and political pragmatism, there must be times when Barack
Obama must feel a little like that black passenger. Consider that
Barack Obama is as close to the American dream embodied in the
Horatio Alger story as it gets. This child of an African immigrant
who abandoned his son, raised by a single white mother, and who rose
through hard work and intelligence to the peak of academic
achievement (as president of the Harvard Law Review) and to the upper
reaches of the American political class (as the candidate of the
Democratic party for the presidency of the United States) is called
an elitist by the representatives of the party that governs for the
rich and the ultra-rich.
Some
elitist: Upon leaving law school after an outstanding career at
Harvard, Obama gave up what surely would have been a very lucrative
career as the young superstar in an establishment law firm to work as
a low-paid community organizer on the tough streets of Chicago.
To
top it all off, Obama is a family man, religious, charming,
good-looking, and a superb orator. He even shoots a mean jump shot.
What’s
there not to like? Some pundits have made themselves look sillier
than usual coming up with reasons. He is too perfect! He is too
polished! He doesn’t stumble when he walks or talks! He is too
slim! How can a nation of obese men and women identify with someone
with virtually no body fat? He doesn’t eat enough unhealthy foods!
Maybe he should take a page from Clinton and make forays to
McDonald’s.
For
a large sector of the American electorate, the real reasons for
holding a less than favorable view of the junior Democratic Senator
from Illinois lie elsewhere. A poll conducted by The
New York Times this
July found that only 39 percent of Americans have a favorable
impression of Obama compared with 31 percent that have an unfavorable
opinion, and 28 percent who say they are undecided or have not heard
enough.
What’s
there not to like? The racial breakdown tells the tale. Black
Americans see very little not to like, despite all of the early talk
that Obama, as a biracial person who eschews the discourse of black
anger, is not “black enough.” Among African Americans, the ratio
of favorable to unfavorable is 83 to 2 percent! Only 14 percent are
undecided or have not heard enough.
In
stark contrast, among whites the ratio of favorable to unfavorable is
31 to 37 percent. Thus, more whites have an unfavorable view of Obama
than have a favorable view. Moreover, there are as many whites (31
percent) who say they are undecided or have not heard enough about
Obama as those who say that they have a favorable view. That is more
than twice the number as among blacks. No doubt, a portion of whites
in this category simply did not want to tell a pollster that they
have an unfavorable view of Obama for fear of appearing racist. That
means that, among whites, the plurality that has an unfavorable
versus a favorable view of the Democratic candidate is much larger
than 6 percent.
The
mainstream media’s interpretation of these facts is the self
evident observation that “Obama has not closed the deal with most
white voters.” But, as Bob Dylan would say: “How many roads must
a man walk down before you call him a man?” What does Obama have to
do? What more can he, who exemplifies all that America wants to
believe about itself regarding opportunity, talent, and merit — and
who has gone out of his way and nearly bent over backwards to assuage
the fears of white voters — do?
The
answer that the poll numbers scream out, but the mainstream media is
unable to confront, is that there is a limit to what Obama can
accomplish with the white electorate because there is still a great
deal of racism, mostly unacknowledged, in this country. In the realm
of American presidential campaigns, racism has become like the naked
emperor. The emperor has no clothes but no one is allowed to say it,
least of all Barack Obama, who Republicans accuse of “playing the
race card” merely for taking note of how right-wing McCain
supporters on talk radio and the Internet are brazenly playing the
race and fear card against
him.
Obama
may still win the election. The disasters that George W. Bush and the
Republicans have wrought on this country have been so numerous and
massive that they may outweigh the legacy of racism. If it does not,
it will be a measure of the extent to which racial fears and
antagonisms play a role in twenty-first century America.
In
order to prevail, Obama also will have to survive a plethora of dirty
tricks and worse low blows than that in the recent John McCain ad
that compared the Democratic candidate’s popularity in Europe to
the celebrity status of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. The
comparison, meant to imply that Obama has as much substance as the
two blonde bimbos, is absurd. World leaders may cavort with bimbos
but they do not hold press conferences with them. And it is such an
insult to the intelligence of the American people that it may
backfire. Yet it signals the direction of the McCain campaign, which
the candidate promised would be a clean one, and which has descended
into the gutter even before the party nominating conventions.
There
is a reason for this. There is no Republican road to the White House
in 2008, except a foul one. Bush and the Republicans have made a mess
of almost everything. The American people disapprove of George W.
Bush and oppose most Republican policies. John McCain, whose claim to
maverick status always has been shaky, is now a clone of Bush on
almost all issues that count. To put it kindly, the GOP candidate has
not run a stellar campaign; compared to Obama’s, it has been lousy.
In contrast to McCain, who is a well-worn and hardly exciting figure
on the American political scene today, Barack Obama is fresh and as
brilliant a politician and charismatic a candidate as there has been
in more than a generation. He should win in a landslide. He probably
won’t. At best, he is likely to win by a hair or two. Chuck it up
to the racial discount factor.
The
outcome of this election will depend less on whether Barack Obama can
find the magic formula to “connect” with white working class
voters than whether a sufficient number of white working class voters
can put aside their lingering racial prejudices and fears and vote
for their own interests and those of the nation.
